"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

I have always enjoyed Dvorak's beautiful and moving New World Symphony. I was listening to it a few months ago when a part of the second movement suddenly started sounding familiar. Listen to the part I am talking about here. The melody begins at the 45 second point. A bit of research on the internet revealed that it is the basis for the melody of a song called Going Home which you can hear being sung by the extremely talented Norwegian soprano Sissel by clicking here.

Sissel Kyrkjebø

However, I knew that wasn't really what was ticking a box in my memory and last Saturday on the very popular BBC radio Saturday morning programme Sounds of the Sixties my search was finally over. Before they had their big hits Sailing (later covered by Rod Stewart) and The Arms of Mary, The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver were known as A New Generation and they had a minor hit with a song that I had always liked at the time called Smokey Blues Away. Take a listen here and you will understand why I liked this poignant, sad song. This song, as far as I can tell, is not available on any CD or digital source and vinyl copies are hard to get. So You Tube is one of the only ways to hear it!